3GPP Long Term Evolution, LTE, is the fourth-generation mobile communication technologies standard developed within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP, to improve the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, UMTS, standard to cope with future requirements in terms of improved services such as higher data rates, improved efficiency, and lowered costs. In a typical cellular radio system, wireless devices or terminals also known as mobile stations and/or user equipment units, UEs, communicate via a radio access network, RAN, to one or more core networks.
The Policy and Charging Control, hereinafter PCC, functionality is deployed in 3 GPP TS 23.203 V12.4.0 (2014-03) for Evolved 3 GPP Packet Switched domain, including both 3 GPP accesses (GERAN/UTRAN/E-UTRAN) and Non-3GPP accesses.
The PCC architecture, which is illustrated in FIG. 1, comprises: a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function, PCEF, 1 which is in charge of traffic flow detection and enforcement of applicable policies to user traffic flows; a Policy and Charging Rules Function, PCRF, 4 which is in charge of providing network control for the traffic flow detection by holding policies and providing PCC rules to the PCEF 1 per user traffic flow basis; a Traffic Detection Function, TDF, 8 which is in charge of performing application detection and reporting detected applications and service data flow descriptions to the PCRF 4; a Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function, BBERF, 7 which is in charge of receiving from the PCRF 4 Quality of Service, QoS, rules on the treatment of each service data flow and of ensuring that the service data flow is carried over the bearer with the appropriate QoS; an Application Function, AF, 6 which is in charge of submitting to the PCRF a description of the media to be delivered at the bearer layer; a Charging Trigger Function CTF, 9 which is in charge of triggering charging events; an Online Charging System, OCS, 2 which handles charging information affecting, in real-time, the service to be provided and the control of network resources required; an Offline Charging System, OFCS, 3 which handles charging information not affecting the service in real-time, but provided to the operator after having used the network resources; and a Subscription Profile Repository, SPR, 5 which holds subscription and service data for subscribers of the telecommunication system.
Regarding the communication between the above PCC entities, as disclosed in 3GPP TS 23.203 V12.4.0 (2014-03), PCRF and PCEF communicate through a so-called Gx interface, whereas PCRF and AF communicate through a so-called Rx interface. In particular, the PCRF thus provides control rules to the PCEF through this Gx interface, whereas the AF provides the description of the media to be delivered at the bearer layer to the PCRF through this Rx interface.
Regarding the control rules submitted from the PCRF to the PCEF, these control rules include, although are not limited to, those PCC rules disclosed in 3GPP TS 23.203, and can be provided upon establishment or modification of an IP Connectivity Access Network, hereinafter IP-CAN, session.
Still with reference to FIG. 1, different interfaces are used to connect the network elements in accordance with PCC standards. For instance, the PCRF server 4 is connected with the SPR 5 via the Sp interface, with the OCS 2 via the Sy interface, with the TDF 8 via the Sd interface, and with the BBERF 7 via the Gxx interface; the PCEF 1 is connected with the OCS 2 via the Gy interface, with the OFCS 3 via the Gz interface; and the CTF 12 is connected with the OCS 22 via the ‘Ro’ interface.
3GPP TS 32.299 V12.4.0 (2014-03) for Gy/Ro interface recommends/requires that a credit request is sent for a Rating Group (RG) when the matching traffic is detected. As a rule of diameter credit control, when an answer is received from OCS, Diameter Credit Control Application, DCCA client shall validate that only ‘requested’ RG can be included. The DCCA client will start failure handling if ‘unexpected RG’ is received and in some cases even terminate the Packet Data Network, PDN, connection (as a consequence of terminating credit control session).
If the answer from DCCA server is to block or redirect the user, depending on how traffic is handled by DCCA client under the time of waiting for the answer from OCS, it might happen that the ‘to be blocked traffic’ has passed through the DCCA client. In the redirection case, the user might have to re-attempt to access the original service in order to be redirected since DCCA client missed the moment to send redirection Uniform Resource Locator, URL, to a subscriber while waiting for the answer from OCS.
The above mechanism leads to the waste of an amount of data. Neither end-user nor operator can get benefit from it. When LTE technology is in use, the waste tends to get bigger due to high bandwidth.